Browser Recommendations

http://matthew.gaia.com — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:23:19 GMT

One of the things we'd like to do on the support pod is help make your time spent on the site as enjoyable as possible. Experience has taught us that there are some browsers that tend to "agree" with our code-base and others that stubbornly "refuse" every change we make to the site. (Browsers have such an attitude!)

So, let me help ease some of the frustration you might experience here by giving you a couple of browser recommendations, based on my own personal two-plus-year history with this site.

1.) The best browser you can use on gaia.com is Firefox (Windows or Mac). Please make sure you have the most up-to-date version. As of this writing, that is version 3.0.1 You can check your browser version number in your help menu. (In Windows, go to help > about). Mozilla will continue to improve their Firefox browser, so to make sure you are current, just head on over to mozilla.com to get the latest version of Firefox. Firefox is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.

1.) ***This just in*** With the launch of Safari 3, it is now a recommended browser on the Gaia Community (Mac-only). Just make sure you're picking up the latest release (non-beta) version. Some probably feel this browser is better than even Firefox. And perhaps it is. In fact, it is the most standards-compliant browser available today. Thus, I gave it a ranking of 1 (equal to Firefox). But since Firefox is more well-known, I left that one at the top. At the time of this writing, Safari 3 is still in beta for Windows. So, unless you're very web-savvy I wouldn't yet recommend it for a PC.

2.) The second best browser (for windows users only) for use with this site is Internet Explorer 7. You can only use this browser with a Microsoft PC. I highly, highly recommend you not use version 6 of Internet Explorer (IE 6). It is the browser we have the most trouble with. It also contains security issues, and Microsoft doesn't even support it any more. As Slashdot put it,

"InfoWorld is reporting that on February 12th, Microsoft will roll out Internet Explorer 7 through Windows Server Update Services to all systems - regardless of whether or not the update had been requested previously... Microsoft claims that the decision was made due to 'security concerns'."

If you are using Windows 98 or older, you can't upgrade to IE 7. So, in that case, please use the latest release version of Firefox instead. It works better, here, anyway.

3.) You may have a favorite browser that you use on the rest of the web, but be warned that if you decide not to take my advice and indignantly use your favorite browser instead, you may run into little buggy-poos now and again that we can't support.

Hope that helps you navigate the site more smoothly!
~M

P.S. The browser recommendations provide a best-case scenario. It doesn't mean the site will magically be bug free ;)

Gaia: Gaia Support - General Support Questions - Browser Recommendations

Browser Recommendations